Fear not people, the title is by no means a hint at a review of any of the films but more the lack of me watching them! Yesterday was a roasting hot day here in Austin tipping 30 degrees centigrade throughout most of the day. This was good and bad. The good is that it means I can sit down in our lovely Oasis that is the HP Mobile Park and work all day outside in the blazing sun. The bad news is that this means not only can I not see my screen since it’s so bright but also everyone else is out there so you spend most the time chatting with them and playing games of ladder ball and Frisbee – all of which I love to do anyway! Then there’s the fact I forgot to put suntan lotion on my face so I now have panda eyes like i’ve been skiing!
The plan yesterday was to head over to catch Kumare, then onto Werner Herzog’s new movie, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams finishing the day with a movie which everyone has said scared them silly, Insidious! Various things got in the way of the first movie, probably most due to the 6am finish the night before after playing frisbee with Michael Cera and The Gregory Brothers who were made famous after creating their ‘Auto-Tune The News’ YouTube channel. After waking up and deciding that the 4 hours sleep was not enough and checking my email to discover the new 100 emails I’d had since I went to bed (damn you time differences!), I ended up spending most the day working at the trailer park.
The Alamo Lamar is a cinema a couple of miles out of town and it a right pain to get to generally, let alone when 100 000 extra people descend on Austin. Flagging down a taxi was near impossible with gridlocked and overcrowed streets so my friend Ben and I decided that walking was the best idea. The cinema is exactly 2.1 miles away from theHP Trailer Park according to Google Maps and let me remind you, I have a twisted ankle, it’s 30 odd degrees out there but hey, this was a movie we really wanted to see so it was worth the effort! We arrived at the Alamo literally on the dot of the time the film was about to start only to see our friend Liz walking away with the news that the screening was full and they were turning people away! AHHH! SO annoying! So I still haven’t seen that movie, i guess we’ll have to wait until it comes out in the UK. Rats!
I always try to look at the positive and since we were all feeling rather disheartedned at not getting in, we bussed it back (Liz is rather more savvy with US public transport than Ben and I and yes, had we known we could have got the bus there in the 1st place!), to the park and decided to hit a restuarant called the Iron Works BBQ. Tip for you, if ever you come to Austin, you HAVE to go to this place. It’s absolutely amazing with a queue outside the door pretty much all day every day. This is no place for vegetarians as it’s just meat, meat and then, when you’re done, a bit more meat! Ben and I both ordered half a pound of briskett and half a pound of pork ribs. Both were phenominal and I now have a favourite restaurant in Austin although I think for my own health, it’s probably better not to go there too often!
The evening came, new friends were made at the HP Mobile Park happy hour which has taken place every day of the fesitval from 6-8 and we all headed off to some gigs in town. After walking past a couple of hundred bars playing music of every genre under the sun, we went into a venue called Mohawk where Skrillex, Sub Focus, 12th Planet and MstrKrft were all playing. This was so much my kind of music. Sort of Pendulum esk with a more dub-steppy feel. I know this is a movile blog but since there is so much music playing here, it would be wrong not to mention it! I got so engrossed in the music, I completely lost track of time and missed the bus over to Insidious which was again playing at the Lamar but I think that we may have a new writer on the site, or maybe even a couple who I got to hang out with last night so keep your
eyes peeled for some new talent! I’ve been very rude and not actually introduced you to Albert and Marie who are here on behalf of HeyUGuys. They were always going to be coming to SXSW for us and it was only a week before the event actually started that we found out that I was going to be here! It’s been great to meet them and thanks to them for all their reviews of which more will come!
SXSW 2011 is coming to a close now. Things are starting to wind down today but the streets are still filled to the brim with people, music is playing from all directions fighting for airspace and all the movies that have now shown multiple times at multiple venues are fading to black with Billy Bob Thorton’s documentary, King of Luck ending the festival aling with Kayne West playing The Powerplant tonight.
I may well do one more post if I get the chance, but if not, thanks for reading all my updates, I hope I’ve given you just a little taste of what SXSW 2011 has been like and hopefully we’ll do the same again next year!
